Dear Bernhard
Our campaigns over the years aiming to produce mammalian cytokines and the 
ectodomains of cytokine receptors via eukaryotic expression systems (mainly in 
several HEK293 flavors) for structural biology, have taught us that the 
N-linked glycosylation issue remains a very empirical exercise. Our protein 
targets are typically 15-70 kDa and have 2-6 predicted N-linked glycosylation 
sites. For instance, we have seen that elimination of even one such site by 
mutagenesis can abrogate protein secretion. So for those cases one may even 
make an argument for a glycosylation ‘hotspot'.  Also, eliminating all possible 
N-linked glycosylation sites at once in the couple of cases tried has been 
synonymous with zero protein secretion. Our consensus of the ‘magic combo’ in 
terms of expression levels and stability is a reduction of N-linked 
glycosylation sites by up to 1/3. Such reduced levels of glycosylation also 
appear to be amenable for enzymatic glycan trimming in subsequent stages of 
sample preparation with good results.  
The article http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2013.04.003 by Aricescu and Owens 
may provide some additional perspectives.
 
best wishes
Savvas


> On 11 Apr 2017, at 22:34, Bernhard Rupp <hofkristall...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Fellows,
>  
> a humble question for our glyco-expressionists: 
>  
> I have mutated out the Asns of the N-glycoslation consensus sites for Asp 
> (Asp simply because the PNGaseF treated protein stays stable so I thought 
> that might be a good guess) 
> and indeed the unglycosilated mutant expresses well and gets secreted as 
> planned. 
>  
> But rumor has it that glycoproteins that are mutated to non-glyc often are 
> not processed correctly and 
> that we had just dumb luck. 
>  
> May I poll the educated opinion of the erudite here?
>  
> Cheers, BR
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Bernhard Rupp
> Crystallographiae Vindicis Militum Ordo
> http://www.hofkristallamt.org/
> b...@hofkristallamt.org
> +1 925 209 7429
> +43 767 571 0536
> ------------------------------------------------------
> :(){ :|: & };:
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